Innis, Harold A. (1942) - The Newspaper in Economic Development

Economic History Association
The Newspaper in Economic Development

Author(s): Harold A. Innis
Source: The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 2, Supplement: The Tasks of Economic History
(Dec., 1942), pp. 1-33
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Economic History Association
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THE
JOURNAL
DECEMBER
OF
ECONOMIC
1942
HISTORY
SUPPLEMENT
TheNewspaper
in Economic
Development
I
THE
bibliographyof this subject is the subject,and the enormousfiles
of newspapers turned out in the course of over three centuries are

formidability itself. To reduce the element of formidability it is necessary to turn to studies of the newspaper in terms of countries, regions,
owners, editors and journalists. But again the bibliography reflects the
character of the press. Newspapermen have contributed notably, but unfortunately the training in newspaper work is not ideal for an economic
interpretation of the subject. The increasing participation of university
graduates in journalism provides a basis for more objective studies, but
even here the training exercises a subtle influence and weakens the possibility of a sustained and effective interpretation. Throughout the history of the newspaper industry, studies reflect the dominant influence
of the moment, or perhaps it is safer to say, represent the dominant influence of the tradition of the industry; hence they show a perceptible
lag between the newspaper as it is and the newspaper as it was. In the
main they are obsessed with the role of the press in relation to political
opinion, the importance of freedom of the press, the fourth estate and
so on; they are suffused with innumerable cliches' constantly bubbling
up from the effervescence of writing.
The dominant role of advertising which followed the penny press and
which necessitated active participation in advertising by the press itself
has been largely neglected. Studies of advertising are exposed even more
than studies of the press to the bias of the subject and they tend to advertise advertising: to show that it is very good or very bad. Publications on the press are an indication of the importance of advertising the
'See Frederick Hudson, Journalism in the United States from 1690 to 1872 (New
York, 1973), xv-xix.
1

Harold A. Innis
press, in showing what a powerful influence such a paper or such an

editor or such a publisherhas had on the community. Histories of newspapers and biographies of journalists are all too frequently obvious
forms of advertising. The modern newspaperdominated by advertising
creates an atmosphere which makes a study extremely difficult and
hazardous.The claims of the "World's GreatestNewspaper"and of the
newspaper with the slogan "all the news that's fit to print" as well as
the excellent subtle advertising technique shown in the writings of
Oswald Garrison Villard and Upton Sinclair and their opponents illustrate the difficulties. Freedom of the press has made freedom of
speech impossible but I can assume that this paper will not be noticed
or if noticed will not be read by those concerned immediately with the
press. I can perhapsrun the risk of violating Mark Twain's dictum that
we have freedom of the press and freedom of speech and the good sense
not to use either of them. I cannot pretendto have walked unscathed in
the crossfireof overdrawn, exaggerated claims regarding the press, and
of overdrawn and exaggerated attacks on suppression, brutality, overstatement and misrepresentation.I suspect a bias of my own toward
the intellectual revolt voiced by Mark Pattison against the vaunted
power of the press when he wrote, "Writers with a professional tendency
to magnify their office have always been given to exaggerate the effect
of printed words."
II
It has been said that "the fundamental economic character of printing is seen at its fullest in the history of newspapers."'At its beginning
the printer used the offpeak capacity of a plant concerned with books
and pamphlets.The manufacture of paper gave employmentto the collectors of rags and may have contributedto the cleanliness of the population and to the gradual decline of epidemics. The sale of papers assisted in maintaining patronage for coffee houses and provided employment to street hawkers. Like books newspapers were restricted in England and the colonies by the church and by the Crown. In its origins the
newspaperwas publishedat short and infrequent intervals, and down to
1641 was restricted to foreign news. During the Civil War the printer
was subsidized by the demandsof separate factions, and great numbers
of newsbooks appeared.After the Restoration, restrictions were more
2Stanley Morrison, The English Newspaper (Cambridge, 1932), 5.

The Newspaperin EconomicDevelopment
effective and it was not until 1695, after the revolution in 1688, that licensing was abolished.Printers respondedwith the productionof books,
pamphletsand newspapers.The partydisputesof the reign of QueenAnne
were waged by writers in newspapersas well as by the use of taxes and
restrictions.The great age of political journalism flourishedin the writings of Addison, Steele, Defoe and Swift. Enduring products of the
age are found not only in the Spectatorand the Tatler but also in Defoe's
Robinson Crusoe and Swift's Gulliver's Travels. The most effective
journalism was that of Swift's Drapier's Letters, written under almost
insuperableobstacles, and directed against the distribution of coins in
Ireland by William Wood. Swift wrote that the "Printer's trade, particularly in this Kingdom, is, of all others, the most unfortunately circumstantiated,for as you deal in the most worthless kind of trash, the
penny productions of pennyless scribblers; so you often venture your
liberty, and sometimes your lives, for the purchase of half a crown;
and, by your own ignorance, are punished for other men's actions."
Walpole carried political control to its logical conclusion in his domination of the press. The age of authors who wrote for the party press was
followed by the dark ages of Walpole corruption,although the light of
political freedom continued to burn in such papers as the Craftsman. In
the colonies, the post office and the demands of the government for
printing supportedearly newspapers. In both England and the colonies
an increase in the possibilities of change of those in control of government was fostered by the printer.The prospectof change accentuatedthe
bitterness of journalism between those in control of government subsidies and those who hoped to control them.
The decline of political journalism under Walpole was largely responsible for the decreasing importance of the printer and the increasing
importanceof the publisher,and of advertising. Commercialexpansion
after the union of Scotland and England in 1707 and the treaty of
Utrecht in 1713 brought increasing specializationin markets,and the demand for information brought buyers and sellers together. On February
3, 1730 there "occurredan event of the highest importance in the history of English journalism,"3the publication of the Daily Advertiser.
Although its first issues contained nothing but advertisements, in three
weeks news was added. Commercialintelligence which formed "the entire contents of the early issues, speedily took its importantplace as the
3
Ibid., 125.

Harold A. Innis
normal constituent of a morning paper." By 1740 all morning papers

'gave commercial intelligence and advertising relative and regular
space."'
After the fall of Walpole the interest in political news was revived
with the outbreakof wars, the dominance of the cabinet and the necessity of expanding the market for advertising. Parliamentary debates
were reported surreptitiously.The attempt of George III to dominate
the House of Commons with the assistance of Scottish influence represented by Bute, precipitatedan acute struggle to secure access to debates. John Wilkes, supported by Junius and London interests, succeeded in 1771, in securing the right of the press to publish the debates.
David Hume, a Scotsman familiar with England, doubtless had Great
Britain in mind when he wrote that "nothing is more favourable to the
rise of politenessand learning than a numberof neighbouring and independent states, connected together by commerce and policy." The
struggle against Scottish influence was a factor in securing freedom of
the newspapersto publishdebates.Scottish influencebrought relief from
the dominanceof the book publishing trade, a dominancewhich was destroyed by a decision in 1774 in favour of Alexander Donaldson, a
Scottish publisherin the London market.5The sale of cheap books which
followed the substantial reduction of royalty privileges opened the way
to competition in publishing books and newspapers.The Stuart family,
Daniel, Peter, and their brother-in-law,James Mackintosh, and James
Perry exercised an importantinfluenceon journalism. James Perry gave
the Morning Chronicle a prominent place by the efficiency with which
he organized the reporting of debates. Daniel Stuart was conspicuously
successful with the Morning Post and later the Courier.
Daniel Stuart and John Walter, the founder of The London Times,
made important contributions to the developmentof the press by combining features, news, and opinion to support advertising. Booksellers
established the Morning Post in 1772 but their efforts to control it
were defeated by the policy of Stuart. He wrote, "I encouraged the
small miscellaneousadvertisementin the front page, preferring them to
any other upon the rule that the more numerousthe customers, the more
independent and permanent the custom .
. .
. Advertisements act and
react. They attract readers, promote circulation and circulation attracts

4 Abid.,127.
5 See A. S. Collins, The Profession of Letters (London, 1928).

advertisements."'The booksellersstartedthe British Press and the Globe

to competewith Stuart but without success. John Walter emphasizedthe
importanceof advertising in general rather than advertising for particular groups. On January 1, 1785, in the first number of the Daily
Universal Register, which became The Times, he wrote, "It would
seem that every newspaperpublishedin London is calculated for a particularset of readersonly; so that, if each set were to change its favourite
publication for another, the commutation would produce disgust and
dissatisfaction to all."7"A newspaper..... ought not to be engrossed by
any particular object, but, like a well covered table; it should contain
something for every palate." "The great objects ....
will be to facili-
tate the Commercialintercoursebetween the different parts of the community, through the channel of advertisements; to record the principal
occurrencesof the times and to abridge the accountof the debatesduring
the sitting of parliament."8 Advertisementswere not to be "sacrificedto
the rage for parliamentarydebates." The extreme length of these debates "so greatly retards the publicationof the News-Papers which are
noted for detailedaccountsof them, that the advantagesarising .... are
frequently overbalancedby the inconveniences occasioned to people in
business by the delay .... Parties interested in sales are essentially injured as the advertisementsinviting the public to attend them at ten or
twelve o'clock; do not appear,on account of a late publicationtill some
hours after." The Universal Register was promised for six o'clock.
John Walter and his son, printers and booksellers, developed the
techniqueof printing to take full advantage of the contributions of the
industrial revolution-the application of steam to the press. In 1814
The Times used steam for the first time. "The fundamental economic
characterof printingbecamemost explicit with the inventionof the power
press, constructedby a newspaperfor a newspaper."9The applicationof
power to the press was accompaniedby its applicationto the manufacture
of paper in the introduction of the Foudrinier machine which enormously increased production. The price of fine paper in England declined
from 49s. 2d. per ream in 1814 to 35s. in 1824; and of printing paper
from 24s. in 1831 to 15s. 6d. in 1843. These improvements facilitated
6
Frank Presbrey, The History and Development of Advertising (New York, 1929),
80.
0. Bowman, The Story of "The Times" (London, 1931), 1-2.
Morrison, 182.
9 Ibid.' 4.
7 W.

Harold A. Innis
the extension of news service to meet the demands for news of the
Napoleonic wars. Walter sent Henry CrabbRobinson as one of the first
war correspondentsto Europe and organized a schooner service to receive early access to war news. Improvements in the transmission of
news were accompaniedby improvementsin the distribution of papers.
The mail coach was introduced in the 1790's and rapidly widened the
range of circulation.
The French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars brought demands
for news, but they also brought demands for the regulationand suppression of newspapers through taxes and restrictions. In spite of the relaxation of the libel law in 1792, prosecutions were severe and numerous, and restrictive legislation was passed in 1798. The press sank to
levels of vituperationcomparableto those of the early eighteenth century
and the civil war. Lockhart refused to accept the editorship of the Representative supportedby John Murray because of the "loss of caste in
society."10He wrote that "Ministers.... consider literaryallies as worse
than useless unless they be preparedto shift at every breach, like the
Courier, which, by the bye, such shifting has utterly ruined."1 William
Wright supportedhim in a letter October 3, 1825: "Your accepting the
editorshipof a newspaperwould be infra dig and a losing of caste; but not
so I think acceptingof the editorshipof the QuarterlyReview .... An editor of a Review like the Quarterlyis the office of a scholar and a gentleman; but that of a newspaperis not, for a newspaperis merely stock-intrade to be used as it can be turned to most profit."12On February 24,
1826, Sir Walter Scott wrote of the "touch-and-go,blackguard-genteel
which distinguishesthe real writer for the press,"' and on April 3, 1829,
he wrote to Lockhart, "Your connection with any newspaper would be
disgrace and degradation.I would rather sell gin to the poor people and
poison them by the way."'14In his journal of April 3, 1824, he wrote,
"Nothing but a thorough-going blackguardought to attempt the daily
press, unless it is some quiet country journal."'5The breakingout of innumerablesheets precededthe Reform Act of 1832. Agitation in favor
10 Andrew Lang,
The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart (London, 1897), I,
365.
11"Ibid.,II, 59.
12
Ibid., I, 367.
Ibid., I, 397.
14 Ibid., II, 51-2.
15The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, (Edinburgh, 1890), II, 262. Frances Jeffrey,
editor of the Edinburgh Rezvew, wrote to Charles Wilkes on 13 April 1822, "The
most disgusting pecularity of the present times is the brutal scurrility and personality
13

of Reform was carried on vigorously by William Cobbett and others,

and by the Sunday press, radical in part if only because it was sold on
Sundays.
The deteriorationof English journalism and restrictions on newspapers were in part responsible for the appearanceof the Edinburgh Review in 1802. Scottish influence was again in evidence as a competitive
corrective. The system of education in England which had been dominated by the clergy, supportedmonopolies in control of knowledge while
the system of national educationin Scotland provided a background for
healthy competition.In Scotland, according to Adam Smith, "the establishment of parish schools has taught almost the whole common people
to read and a very great proportionof them to write and account." The
use of English in Scottish universities gave a striking advantage over
English universities wedded to the classical system. Frances Hutcheson,
David Hume, and Adam Smith had the advantageof the Scottish education, and an open road to England, and indeed to France, which enabled
them to escape the tyranny of the Presbyterian Church. Lower printing
costs favoured publishingactivity in Edinburgh. The first edition of the
Encyclopedia Britannica was printed in 1771 and later editions in the
1780's. The absence of a Grub Street in Scotland brought an outburst
of publishing activity associated with the names of Constable, the
Ballantynes, and Scott. The Edinburgh Review broke upon a stagnant
political and literary world. In Scotland, according to the editor of the
Edinburgh Review, Francis Jeffrey, the autocratic control of Dundas
left "no popularrepresentation,no emancipatedburghs, no effective rival
of the Established Church, no independentpress, no free public meetings."'6The activity of Constable in publishing the poetry of Scott and
the Edinburgh Review led to the establishmentby John Murray of the
of the party press, originally encouragedby ministers, though I believe they would now
gladly get rid of it; but from their patronage and general appetite for scandal it has
become too lucrative a thing to be sacrificedto their hints, and goes on, and will go on,
for the benefitand at the pleasureof the venal wretches who supply it." Lord Cockburn,
Life of Lord Jeffrey with a Selection from His Correspondence(Edinburgh, 1852), II,
200. Jeffrey even had qualms about the Edinburgh Review. He wrote to Frances
Horner on May 11, 1803, "The risk of sinking in the general estimation and being considered as fairly articled to a trade that is not perhaps the most respectablehas staggered me more, I will acknowledge than any other consideration."Ibid., I, 145. "From
the very first I have been anxious to keep clear of any tradesman like concern in the
Review and to confine myself pretty strictly to intercoursewith gentlemen only as contributors."Nov. 1, 1827. Ibid., 280.
16Lord Cockburn,Life of Lord Jeffrey with a Selection from His Correspondence
(Edinburgh, 1852) I, 74.

Harold A. Innis
QuarterlyReview in 1809 and the sponsorshipof Lord Byron's poetry.

Scott turned from poetry to novels as a result of the competition.
The effects of restrictions and taxes on newspapers were evident not
only in attemptsat evasion and scurrility. The technicalcharacterof the
papers was changed. The important contributions of John Bell to the
improvementof typography in the latter part of the 18th century disappearedbecausethe burden of stamp taxes compelledthe use of small
print to increase the contents of the page, which in turn ruined the eyesight of generations of Englishmen in the nineteenth century. The position of The Times was enormously strengthened. The inability of
John Murray, the publisher, to start a new paper, The Representative,
to supplementthe Quarterlywas an indication of the strength of papers
established firmly on the technical revolutions of the printing industry,
and protected by the tax system. After the death of Perry in 1820, the
difficultiesof the Morning Chronicle, with its interest in parliamentary
debates,were in part a result of the ability of The Times to develop this
side of its activities together with its news and advertising. With efficient printing The Times could delay publicationlonger to obtain later
news and publish earlier than its competitors. Concentrationon the development of printing technique facilitated division of labor and favoured the emergence of the editor. Barnes and his successor, Delane,
raised the status of journalism and became intimate with ministers of
the government. They had an indirect incentive for the developmentof
close relations with the government because of the importance of legislation favouring their position, and a direct incentive because it gave
them access to importantpolitical news in an era of important political
news and raised the prestige of the paper. Its power became of political
importanceand The Times becamethe "Thunderer."In 1850 the annual
circulation of all London dailies excluding The Times was 8,719,840
and of The Times, 11,900,000.
III
Interrelationsbetween the British and American press varied but by
the end of the nineteenth century American influence on the British
press was conspicuous.Suppressionof the freedom of the press in England had its repercussionsin the colonies and in the United States. Benjamin Harris fled to New England and started the first newspaper,
Publick Occurrences,in Boston before he returnedto England after the

lapse of the licensing act in 1695. William Cobbett was a journalist in

the United States who reversed the trend by sponsoring Great Britain.
Compelledto leave, he supported the Tory administration in England
until he turnedagainst it in his Political Register and was forced to find
refuge in the United States. He contributedto the vituperative vocabulary of American journalism. Revenue from job printing and government contracts and party subsidies directly and through subscriptions
characterizedthe acrid political controversies of the period before and
after the independenceof the United States but was supplementedby
advertising. Obsession with political disputes, often resulting in duels,
as the one which brought the death of Alexander Hamilton, declined
with the end of the War of 1812, the administrationof President Monroe, and the decline of the federalist party. Shortage of paper and expensive type which followed restrictions on imports during the wars of
the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries necessitated close printing. Newspapers concerned with commercial development increased in
size to the proportions of a blanket, and were supportedby advertisements and high subscriptionprices. Division between papersconcentrating on commercial intelligence and those concentrating on political influence left the increasingly literate population without a press. The intense partisanship and scurrility of the English press provided an example which was drawn upon in the sudden outburst of the penny press
in the United States.'7Without the restrictions of the British tax system, the penny press of the United States spreadrapidlyin the large port
centers. In 1829 one newspaperper week was publishedfor every 36 inhabitantsin the British Isles; one for every fourth inhabitantin Pennsylvania. The cost in the British Isles was 7d, in Pennsylvania 112d. For
one year a daily advertisementof twenty lines in a London paper cost
f202, 16s. and in a New York paper ?6, 18s. 8d. Twelve newspapersin
New York had 1,456,410 advertisements and 400 newspapers in the
United Kingdom only 1,020,000.18
The growth of the penny press led to the adoption of the London
system of sale in the streets through newsboys. Cash receipts from cir;culationwere limited and unstable and necessarily supplementedby receipts from advertising. Credit to subscribersand advertisers was replaced by the cash system. The low fixed price compelled concentration
17
See W. G. Bleyer, Main Currentsin the History of American Journalism (Boston,
1927), Ch. VI.
18 C. D. Collett, History of the Taxes on Knowledge, Their Origin and Repeal (London, 1933), 28-9.

10
Harold A. Innis
on sales to secure volume and receipts, and the increase in circulation

attractedadvertising revenues. With a rigid small price, the size of the
paper in page and in number of pages becamethe elastic elements. Competition for circulation and advertising compelled a policy of vigorous
advertising of the paper which was reflectedin the displacementof advertising by news on the front page and finally in the elaborationof the
head lines.'9 In the interest of sales to a wide range of literacy, news
stories were sensationaland local. Domestic news displacedforeign news,
and crime news and human interest stories were used to fill pages and attract readers.
Expansion of the press was supportedby advances in the technique
used in printing, and in the manufactureof paper. The steam press and
the Fourdriniermachine were introducedin the United States. The supply of rags was increasedboth by the use of the chlorine process, which
made possible the use of coloured supplies,and by imports from Europe
on a large scale. Restrictions on the British press favored lower costs
of rags for the United States. The price of newsprint declined from
about $5.00 per ream in 1821 to $3.00 in 1830. The Columbianpress,
invented by George Clymer of Philadelphiaabout 1813, substituted the
use of a series of levers for the screw. In the early thirties, Richard
Hoe enlarged the Napier press and invented a double cylinder press
with a capacity of 4,000 papers per hour. Printing inks were manufactured on a large scale. A type casting machine was invented in 1822.
The Americanpress was unhamperedin its typographyand format by
the traditions of book printing of Great Britain and the Continent. The
advertiser was more effective in breaking down the conservatism of
journalism, and the printer's control was less conspicuous than that of
the journalists. Newspapers were unable to secure a dominant political
position in the more flexible political machinery of the United States
without a clearly marked class structure. A federal system meant that
Washington was deliberatelychosen as a capital to avoid the jealousies
of large commercialand industrial systems and that there was no capital such as London, to supportthe political dominanceof a large paper
such as The Times. Competition between large urban centers, absence
of a tax system, and a guaranteedprivileged position under the Bill of
Rights ensured the existence of a large number of papers appealing to
various groups.
The introduction of the telegraph in the forties brought a marked
19See H. M. Hughes, News and the Human Interest Story (Chicago, 1940).

11
increase in the supply of news. The Associated Press was formed to

providenews to a large numberof papersat low cost. The Mexican War,
the agitation precedingthe Civil War, and the Civil War itself brought
a rapid extension of the news service and the organization of war correspondents. The sensationalism of the penny press provided a background for the establishment of the more respectable journalism of
Bryant in the Post, Greeley in the Tribune and Raymond in the New
York Times. Organization of news which followed the telegraph increased the efficiencyof the newspaper as an advertising medium. The
pressureof advertising was gradually evident in changes in typography.
In the fifties and sixties Bonner of the New York Ledger, and the flamboyant advertising of P. T. Barnum brought a change in the use of the
single column of agate type. Bennett of the Herald refused to make
concessions to large advertisers on the ground that no favoritism
should be shown and that an appeal should be made to large numbers of
small advertisers. Stereotyping was introduced in 1861 and plates of
whole pages gave the necessary freedom to advertisers to break the restraints of the single column. The web-perfecting press was installed in
1868 by The Times in London and spread rapidly with improvements
made by R. Hoe and Companyto American newspapers.Paper was fed
from a roll, printed on both sides and then cut into flat sheets. Folding
machines were invented to completethe operation. A double supplement
perfecting press was installed by the New York Herald in 1882 and
published24,000 twelve-pagepapers per hour. The same paper installed
a sextuple press in 1889 with a capacity of 24,000 twenty-four-page
papers per hour. In 1895, the Hoe octuple press turned out 48,000 sixteen-page papers per hour and further improvementsincreased the output to 144,000. The four-color press was used by the Inter-Ocean in
1892 and a five-color press by the New York World in 1893. Improvements in the transmissionof news by telegraph,cableand later telephone,
and increases in printing accentuatedthe demand for paper. Rags were
no longer an adequatesource, and after a period of using esparto, wood
becameincreasinglyimportant.Newsprint declined from the high prices
of the Civil War to 12? per pound in 1872, 8? in 1877, 4? in 1887,
30 in 1892 and 1 and 4/5f in 1897. In the eighties and nineties, sulphite, in combination with mechanical pulp, gradually replaced paper
made from rags. With increasedsuppliesof paper the setting up of type
became the bottleneck of the industry. The Mergenthaler linotype was
finally invented and installed by the New York Tribune, the Chicago

Harold A. Innis
12
Daily News and the Louisville Courier-Journalby 1890. Typewriters

came into general use and supportedthe linotype in increasing the rate
of composition. With these changes, size, circulation, and numbers of
newspapersincreased.
Advances of the American press had immediate significance for the
British press released from the burden of taxes. New papers emerged
in the late fifties to contest the monopoly of The Times. Levy, who in
1855 founded the Daily Telegraph, the first successful penny paper in
England, was a close student of J. G. Bennett of the New York Herald.
With the laying of the Atlantic Cable,Americannewspaperswere quickto
extend the lessons learnedin the Civil War and began reportingEuropean
wars. Russell, the outstanding war correspondentof The Times in the
Crimean War, was unable to adapt his graphic style to the demands
of the cable as Dana of the New York Sun learned to his cost. G. W.
Smalley, with experience in the Civil War, representedthe New York
Tribune in cooperation with Archibald Forbes of the London News,
and established new precedentsin the developmentof war correspondence for transmissionby cable. Kingslake wrote that "the extraordinary
triumphs of European journalism at the time of the Franco-Prussian
war of 1870-71 were due, in no slight degree, to the vigor, the sagacity
and the enterprise that were brought to bear on the objects from the
other side of the Atlantic. The success of that partnershipfor the purpose of war news... . which had been forced between one of the London newspapersand the New York Tribunewas an era in the journalism
of Europe, though, not in that of the United States, where the advance
had an older date, deriving from their great Civil War."20The telegraph
produceda cendensationof style and brought an end to "the elaborate
ten-columnarticles and three-volumebooks." "The home telegraph was
diffuse. It was the cable which first taught us to condense."' As a further illustration of American enterprise the New York Herald with
the Daily Telegraph sponsoredthe search by Stanley which ended with
the words "Dr. Livingstone I presume."
The impact of American journalism was evident finally in format
and typography.The inherentconservatismof the press was shown in the
retention of small uniform type in the United States and in Great
Britain, especially the latter because of the monopolistic power of The
Times which continued to use the closely printed page, reflecting the ef20 Royal Cortissoz, The Life of WhitelazoReid (London, 1921), I, 178-9.
21
Bleyer, 206-7.

13
fects of the tax system and the persistent influenceof the printer. Morrison explains the slowness with which changes in format and typographywere made in spite of the increasing demandsof advertising: "the
papers,"he said, "were too exhausted with the struggle to collect and
to digest news which came by telegraph, by cable and-huger novelty
still-by telephone,to have time for typographicalexperiments."
Slow changes in typography accompaniedthe pressure of advertising
in the American press. In turn they had an impact in Great Britain
through the evening papers which escapedthe traditions of the morning
papers and increased in importanceafter the removal of the taxes and
with the decline of The Times. With a training in the provincial press,
W. T. Stead joined the Pall Mall Gazette,and in the early eighties combined the influentialreputationbuilt up by his predecessorJohn Morley
with the energy typical of the new journalism. He made effective use
of the interview, illustrations, cross heads and unconventional headlines. He relieved the press of conventions, respectabilities,anonymity
and party ties, and opened the way to independence from party and
wealth. His energetic supportof the disastrous expedition of Gordon to
Khartoum was an indication of the dangers of transition in the press
and of the menace of government by newspapers. Political journalism
combined with new techniques had unfortunate consequences.The new
journalism was developedand maturedunder the steadier hand of T. P.
O'Connorin the Star in the late eighties. Evening papersflourishedwith
the increasing interest in sport facilitated by reliance on the telegraph
throughout Great Britain. The spread of American influence was more
direct in the establishmentof the Paris edition of the New York Herald
in 1887 and of the London edition in 1889-90. Chester Ives, formerly
of the Paris edition, carried the advances in technique in the evening
papers to the morning papers and started the Morning with the news
on the front page. Alfred Harmsworth and Kennedy Jones followed
the lead with the establishmentof the Daily Mail in 1896 but yielded to
the pressureof English tradition in making a morning paper look like a
morning paper by carrying advertisementson the front page. The final
change was associated with the work of R. D. Blumenfeld, an American journalist on the London edition of the New York Herald, who,
with Arthur Pearson, built up the Daily Express with news on the front
page. He extended and developed the use of the headline and was supported in the later history of the paperby a Canadian,Max Aitken, the
present Lord Beaverbrook.

14
Harold A. Innis
Mechanicaladvances in the United States were borrowed by Europe.

The Hoe rotary press first used on the Philadelphia Public Ledger in
1846 was introducedby La Patrie in 1848 and by Lloyds in London in
1856. Oliver Borthwick made a careful study of American designs and
introducedthem in the publicationof the Morning Post. The Daily Mail
introducedthe linotype and the monotype from the United States, and
therebyhad a capacityof 200,000 papersper hour, an output four times
larger than that of any competitor, within a period of five years. The
Daily Mirror as an illustratedtabloid became a success largely through
the use of a press purchased from the Goss Printing Company of Chicago. Machinery, perfected in the United States and introduced into
England, had enormous significance in the revolution of English journalism after the nineties.
The Times had seized its opportunitiesin the beginning by taking advantage of the obsession of the Morning Chroniclewith parliamentary
news, although, with the decline of the latter paper, it, in turn, became
obsessed with the importanceof political intelligence. In the 1850's and
60's taxes on advertisements,newspapers,and paper were removed and
the monopolistic position of The Times was undermined.Other papers
were quick to seize the advantages of the telegraph, and were able to
compete on a basis of equality with The Times. The Daily Telegraph
pursued an effective policy in attracting advertisementsaway from The
Times. The Manchester Guardian and other provincial papers gained
access to the debates in the House of Commons and were able to exert
sufficient pressure to bring about government ownership of the telegraph system. The prosperity of the Daily News began with extensive
use of the telegraph in the Franco-Prussian war.22The emphasis on
political influence brought instability to The Times as other papers
gained in circulation and influence. Political changes incidental to the
British parliamentary system gave other papers an advantage. Lord
Palmerston flirted in turn with the Morning Chronicle, The Morning
Post, and The Times. After his death and the death of Delane, it became more difficultto establish relations with the government. The political alliances of The Times became more inelastic and led it, in its opposition to Gladstoneon the Irish question, to the disaster of the Pigott
letters. Circulationdeclinedsharply after the death of Delane, and when
Moberly Bell became managing editor in 1890, The Times was practically insolvent.
22See Sir John R. Robinson, Fifty Years of Fleet Street (London, 1904).

15
IV
The impact of technologicalchange on the press varied not only with
major revolutions in printing, paper making, news collection, and distributionof newspapers,but also with the characterof the organization
by which the processes were performed. The printer was in control of
the press until the first half of the eighteenth century when he was
largely superseded by the publisher. The continuing influence of the
printer was evident in the control of The Times by the Walter family.
The journalist became influential in the latter part of the eighteenth
century, as in the case of Perry and the Stuarts, and the editor
emerged in the nineteenth century. With the increasing importance of
large-scalecapital equipment,goodwill assumed a role of major significance. The system of advertising developed by the penny press and reflected in the expansion of news on the front page and the development
of the head line implied the building up of goodwill and policies to
maintain it. Continuity of titles and of ownership particularly in the
family, the unique architecture of buildings, and the publication of
books about individual newspapers, publishers, and journalists, reflected the importanceof advertising and goodwill.
In the United States the monopoly accorded the press by the Bill of
Rights has facilitated organization and resistance to control from the
paper industry. Journalists fostered the development of the paper industry in its origins. William Bradford was financially interested in a
mill at Germantown from 1690 to 1707 and had a mill at Elizabethtown in 1728, while Benjamin Franklin is said to have been instrumental in starting 18 mills.23During the Civil War a combination of
papermakersin the Eastern States increasedthe price of paper between
April and July, 1864, from 15 to 27? a pound. The substitution of wood
for rags defeated the efforts of combinations,but paper, like other commodities, became the concern of trusts in the late nineties with the
formation of the International Paper Company in 1898. Newspapers
made a concertedand successful drive toward the reductionof the tariff
on Canadian raw material. The power of the press was evident in
Theodore Roosevelt's conservation projects, in the lowering of tariffs
23L. T. Stevenson, The Backgroundand Economics of American Papermaking (New
York, 1840). Small papers were probably carried on long credit by paper mills. Josephus Daniels purchasedpaper on credit from W. F. Askew's mill. Josephus Daniels,
Tar Heel Editor (Chapel Hill, 1939), 249-50.

16
Harold A. Innis
in 1909, in the reciprocity treaty24with Canada in 1911, in putting

newsprint on the free list in 1913, and in the expulsion of Senator
Lorimer25in 1912. Large publishers such as the New York Times and
the Chicago Tribune obtained further protection by acquiring ownership or control of Canadian mills. The International Paper Company
acquired large mills in Canada, and in 1928 acquired control of newspapers as a means of guaranteeing a market. Loud protests from the
press compelled it to abandon the scheme, and it has followed a policy
of increasing reliance on the alternative support of hydro-electric
power.
In England the paper maker became influential during the periods of
difficulty and depression. After the collapse of 1825 Sir Walter Scott
wrote, on Sept. 5, 1827, "Perhapsmy genius was Mr. Dickinson, papermaker, who has undertakenthat the London creditors who hold Constable's bills will be satisfied with 10s. in the pound. This would be
turning a genius to purpose for 6s. 8d. is provided, and they can have
no difficulty with 3s. 4d."26 Dickinson was a papermaker of Nash
Mill, Herts "a right plain sensible man. He is so confident in my matters, that a large creditor himself, he appears to come down with the
support of all the London creditors to carry through any measure that
can be devised for my behoof."27The same papermakerwas an influential counsellor in 1839 in advising Blackwood's to establish a London
branch. T. B. Crompton was an influential Lancashire papermaker
who took over the Morning Post under a mortgage of October 5, 1849
and it was not until 1876, that Algernon Borthwick became editor and
proprietor.The monopolistic position of The Times and the high burden of taxes on knowledge destroyed large numbers of small mills,
and resistance to the removal of the paper duty in 1861 was headed by
Mr. Crompton and the Paper Makers' Association.28The marked development of newspapers, following the impact of American technique
in the nineties, facilitated a vigorous policy of acquiring control of raw
materials. The Northcliffe, Rothermere and Beaverbrook interests acquired limits and mills in Newfoundland and Canada.
24 L. E. Ellis, Reciprocity 1911, a Study in Canadian-Americanrelations (New Haven, 1939).
25
See James Weber Linn, James Keeley Newspaperman (Indianapolis, 1937), ch.
VII.
26 The Journal of Sir Walter Scott (Edinburgh, 1890), II, 31.
27 Ibid., 331.
28 C. D. Collet, History of the Taxes on Knowledge (London, 1933), 162-5.

17
Newspapers were concernednot only with the freedom of the press

as a supportto their monopoly position in resisting higher costs of raw
material, but also with the measures designed to increase the number
of readers and to widen the market. They have exercised a powerful
influence on the state by extending the franchise and compulsory education. In the United States literacy was increased indirectly by the
support of compulsory education and directly by the establishment of
newspaperswith a technique designed to penetrate the illiterate fringe
and capableof widening the frontiers of literacy. The demands of the
penny press necessitated appeals to lower levels of literacy and an emphasis on domestic news and particularly on sensational crime which
did not involve libel suits. In England the monopolistic position of The
Times in the press, and of the church in education hamperedthe adoption of compulsoryeducation. The education Act of 1870 followed the
abolition of taxes on knowledge. The demands of a new reading generation were evident in the success of George Newnes in Answers and
of Alfred Harmsworth in Tit-Bits. The Daily Mail and the Daily Express followed directly from this development.The Daily Mail was advertised as "a newspapernot a soporific,"and the "heavies"such as The
Times, which according to Wells "sounded like God talking under the
bed clothes," suffered serious loss.
The impact of technologicaladvance on the press was evident in the
adaptationof types of control. Family influenceand tradition were important in building up goodwill but were not a guarantee of efficiency. The McCormick family has been conspiciously successful with
the Chicago Tribune, the New York News and other papers, and the
Reid family has remainedin effective control of the New York Tribune.
On the other hand the domineering character of pioneers created difficulties. E. W. Scripps quarreled with his brother and his son but
worked out a scheme of organization for a large newspaperchain which
has been successful in the Scripps-Howard papers. Pulitzer experimented with various types of control, but his sons were apparentlyunable to follow his policies in the World. The Bennetts gave direction
to the Herald for two generations, but the death of the younger Bennett
brought the paper on the market. The Dallas News has followed a policy of systematically destroying the control of absentee family interest.29Pulitzer, Bennett, Scripps, and other publishers exercised remote
29Sam Acheson, 35,000 Days in Texas, A History of the Dallas News and its Forbears (New York, 1938).

18
Harold A. Innis
control from steam yachts or from Paris. This device brought prestige and made for the detachment which was necessary in ruthless reorganizations of the staff. The erratic diversions of publishers had
advantagesand disadvantagesfor the newspapers.The defects of family
control in the reorganizationof the press were offset by the ruthlessness
of finance. Frank Munsey played a devastating role in reducing the
number of New York papers, but the importanceof the family is significant in that the New York Herald, which he acquiredafter the death
of Bennett, was purchased by the Reid family and merged with the
Tribune. Decline in the importance of pioneers has been evident in
mutual agreements among members of the staff in the Kansas City
Star, the Chicago Daily News, and the New York Sun. In England
family influence was important in the provincial press, notably the
Manchester Guardian,and in the London press, notably in the case of
the Walter family in The Times. The new journalism had devastating
effects on political journalism, and a large number of papers disappearedbetween 1900 and the early post-warperiod.
The influence of the family in retarding or sponsoring technological
and journalistic change varies not only with the success with which
problems of control are solved, but also with the success with which
monopolistic positions can be maintained in the political field. The
English newspaper has been a combination of political pamphlets
and news letters. Kennedy Jones, a powerful figure in the development
of the Northcliffe press, has argued that throughout the history of the
press, newspapersincrease in power by constant attention to public demands, and as they increase in power, they are courted by politicians.
Flattered by the politicians, they attemptto influencepublic opinion, become distrusted, and lose their influence.30Governments tend to dominate becausethey constitutean importantsource of news, but such dominance brings a loss of prestige to the newspaper.In France, journalism
has been regarded as an acceptedapproachto politics and has not been
anonymous but in England, and the United States, exceptions have
been the rule in an anonymous press. John Morley was such an exception, but argued that literature repudiated conventions while political
action has as its very first working principle compliance with conventions: "All round responsibility for one thing and fuller knowledge of
30See D. H. Stevens, Party Politics and English Journalism 1702-1742 (Menasha,
1916). Ch. I, shows the influence of parties, especially after 1710, on Addison, Steele,
Defoe and Swift.

19
decisive facts makes all the difference."'"One can only glance at the
tragic defeat of Greeleyand the newspapergroup in 1872, the political
reputationof Raymond of the New York Times, and the vigorous but
unsuccessful efforts of Mr. Hearst to secure admission to public life,
to realize the truth of these statements. President Harding was an exception, but he was concernedwith a very small newspaper.
The politician can easily exploit the newspaper,and competitors are
quick to arouse suspicions as to the political ambitions of rivals. In the
United States, concessions have been made in cabinet positions, and
ambassador'sposts were given to Bigelow, Reid, Page and Harvey. In
Great Britain the prestige of journalists improved throughout the nineteenth century particularlywith the coming of the new journalism, and
compromiseswere reached in appointmentsto the House of Lords, as
shown by the elevation of Lord Glenesk of the Morning Post, Lord
Northeliffe, Lord Rothermere, Lord Beaverbrook and others of the
press peerage.Decline in the influenceof the House of Lords after 1911
made appointments less objectionable and more easily achieved. Control of The Times by Northcliffe after 1908 was comparableto the control of the Pall Mall Gazette by W. T. Stead in the eighties, and the
combinationof new methods of journalism with prestige had even more
devastating effects. They were evident prior to the outbreak of war,
were instrumental during the war in replacing Asquith by Lloyd
George, and had their effects in the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The impact of American technique on the British press was
evident in the sudden enormous increase in prestige of those concerned
with the new journalism, and lack of familiarity with the political
problems of Great Britain introduced an element of irresponsibility
which had much to do with the tragedies of 1914 and after. The power
of the press began to decline, and Mr. Baldwin enhanced his political
strength by refusing to be intimidatedby the Plot Press of Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook. "These men seek power without responsibility. All through history royal courtesans have sought the same
thing."
Major changes in the press by which journalism was rapidly adapted
to technological advance were fostered by powerful individuals. The
effective political press had depended on control under a single hand
and avoidance of divisions bringing compromiseand weakness. Training in small town and rural newspapersin the United States and in the
31John Viscount Morley, Recollections (Toronto, 1917), I, 172-189.

20
Harold A. Innis
provincial press in England gave the journalist a knowledge of the details of the industryand an independencewhich became importantin the
major changes of the metropolitan press following technological advance. Experienced aggressive journalists moved from frontier points
to metropolitancities. Pulitzer acquired a wide experience in St. Louis
which he used effectively in building up the New York World. The
effects were evident in the difficultiesof the New York Herald and the
New York Times. Hearst was a close student of Pulitzer's methods
and developed new methods on the San Francisco Examiner before he
purchasedthe New York Journal. He attracted prominent members of
Pulitzer's staff by large salaries, and the competitive warfare between
Hearst and Pulitzer in the late nineties in the New York field brought
circulationto unprecedentedlevels. Northcliffe also lured membersaway
from Pulitzer's staff. Ochs came from the Chattanooga Times and reorganized the New York Times. Individuals from frontier points were
effective in bringing about reorganizations but were less successful in
providing for continuous control.
The achievement of large circulations involved the development of
appealsto lower levels of literacy.The readingpublicof large newspapers
will not tolerate prolonged controversies and abhors constantly reiterated claims. The average reader is not disposed to spend more than
fifteen minutes reading the newspaper. H. L. Mencken puts the extreme limit of the appetiteof the newspaperreaderat 6,000 words. Kennedy Jones claims that war is of first importancein stimulating circulation, state funerals second, a first class murder third, and after this any
big public pageant or ceremony and decisive sporting events. Organization of news services in the Napoleonic Wars gave The Times a lead
over other papers. The Mexican War, the California gold rush and the
Civil War spurred American newspapers to new outbursts of energy.
Wars createda demand for extra editions, and the Civil War as the first
to be fought by a democraticcountry on its own soil introducedthe terrifying phenomenonof bitternesswhich saturatedthe entire community.
The Franco-Prussian War gave the evening paper an established position in England. The Spanish-American War and the South African
War came at the beginning of the new journalism and were exploited to
the full in efforts to increase circulation in New York particularlyand
in London; the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, the Journal, and the
World pushed circulation to new levels. They were ideal newspaper
wars. To Mr. Hearst was attributedthe telegram to Remington, "You

21
furnish the picturesand I'll furnish the war." Prominent funerals played
a role in increasing circulation, one need mention only those of Andrew Jackson, the Duke of Wellington, Lincoln, Queen Victoria and
King Edward. The death of Queen Victoria hastened the change in
format of English papers. The prospect of Gladstone's sudden death
was a nightmare to a generation of English journalists.
The importanceof wars, crimes, and major news varies with the activities of the journalist. In a literal sense, wars are created, as crime
waves are created,by the newspaper.Effective news organization makes
catastrophesand catastrophesnecessitate improvementof the news organization. In the history of the Associated Press catastrophes impose
sudden strains on the organization, and lead to the discovery of weaknesses and to their elimination. The aggressive newspaper sponsors
events which make news-polar expeditions and oceanic flights. Bennett and others have been notoriously successful.
The long run effects of major news events are impossible to predict.
It is claimed that the assassination of Lincoln was a shock to AngloSaxon people, and actually stimulated policies of peace. The Bulgarian
atrocities brought a permanentshift of interest on the part of the people
of Great Britain from domestic to foreign news. The trial of Oscar
Wilde is held responsible for a sharp decline of interest in poetry.32
The moral war against Bennett in the early forties brought a decline in
circulationof the Herald. The assassination of McKinley brought a reaction against the yellow press. Elimination of the "personals"column
in the New York Herald marked the beginning of its decline. Competition checks the exaggeration of news. Melville E. Stone began a policy
in the Chicago Daily News of concentratingon condensednews. His influence was perpetuated in his management of the Associated Press.
The New York Times capitalizedthe demand for news but treated news
items with verbosity. The policy was profitableparticularlybecauseof its
appealto advertisers interested in the market of upper income brackets.
The folklore of journalists has its parallel in the folklore of businessmen. I have heard a former prominentCanadianin the packing industry
attributea turn in the price of bacon to a news report of the shipwreck
of a livestock vessel and the consequent impression of enormous destruction and scarcity. The social scientist would do well to give such
folklore closer attention.
32
James Milne, The Memoirs of a Bookman (London, 1934), 230.

22
Harold A. Innis
The organization of news services has contributedenormously to the

extent and accuracyof news, and the handicap of uniformity has been
offset by the enterpriseof single newspapersor by the growth of competitive organizations. The routine characterof Reuter's news provided
the backgroundfor the spectacularsuccess of the Daily News. Protests
against the control exercised by membersof the Associated Press led to
reorganizations and a shift in influence from New York to Chicago.
Concernwith a single morning paper in each city implied the emergence
of a monopoly which favored the developmentby the Scripps-Howard
chain of the United Press in order to meet the demands of evening
papers. Hearst followed with a third organization. Arrangementsof the
Associated Press with foreign news agencies under Mr. Stone's management brought charges of government influenceand led to the establishment of special correspondentson a large scale. The demands of
news distribution services also introducedelements of rigidity in newspaper policy particularlyas to prices. Changes in the small margin of
prices for distributionwere responsiblefor hostility, creating difficulties
for newspapers, and competition between news distribution services
reached the level of gang warfare.
V
The lumpy character of technological changes in the newspaper industry, the conservativetendenciesincidentalto the importanceof goodwill, and the trend toward monopolies involve adjustments in relation
to advertising. Lowering of prices of newspapersand the widening of
circulation have assumed an increasing literacy or an appeal to lower
levels of literacy, and a backgroundof commercialactivity favorable to
advertising. Taxes on newspapersin England contributedto an outburst
of outdoor advertising. This spread to the United States where patent
medicine firms and other early users of national advertising developed
outdoor advertising on an impressive scale" especially after the Civil
War.
Daily newspaperswere published in widely scattered large cities and
the concentrationon circulation in restricted areas limited the possibility of advertising on a national scale. The developmentof advertising
33 On reaching farthest north in Greenland,Brainardof the Greeley expeditionin 1882
wrote on May 14th, "I have never yet visited anywhere without finding Plantation Bitters advertised conspicuously.This is the highest explored latitude, could be no exception, and on the slab in the face of the cliff I carved the familiar characters St. 1860X."

23
by L. F. Schattuckin floating the bond issues of the Civil War hastened

the establishmentof weeklies and monthlies designed for national circulation. The phenomenal success of the weekly editions of the New
York Tribune and of other papers, the intense activity of the religious
weeklies in the sixties and seventies, and the growth of periodicals
sponsored by book publishers such as Putnam, Harper, and Scribner
reflected the demand for media for national advertising. Advertising
agents became concerned with magazines, and the firm of J. Walter
Thompson, established in 1878, was said more than any other to have
"developedthe magazinefield by the end of the century.""4
Frank Munsey
applied the principle of low prices with the support of advertising
worked out by newspapersto the magazine field and sold Munseys for
100. Periodicals occupied the national political field in the nineties, and
in the early part of the century McClures and Colliers were engrossed
in muckraking. The latter was linked with an extensive book selling
organization" in which national advertising was particularly effective.
Cyrus Curtis and his son-in-law, Edward W. Bok, built up unprecedented circulations for the Saturday Evening Post and the Ladies
Home Journal.
The spectacularsuccess of periodicals based on the sale of features
and national advertising pointed the way to the expansion of newspapers obsessed with local news and neglecting national advertising. The
legacy of bitterness which followed the Civil War, and facilitated the
dominanceof the Republicanparty and the army, compelledthe Democratic party to concentrate on the building up of political machines in
important northern urban centers. Newspapers devoted their attention to crusades and attacks on the boss system. Corruption in the
Republicanspherein the nation was paralleledby corruptionin the Democratic spherein urbancenters. Advertising agents emerged in responseto
demandsfor the organizationof advertising in the newspaper.George P.
Rowell developed the list system in the sixties and published the first
American newspaperdirectory in 1869. N. W. Ayer and Son with experience in advertising in religious papers turned to the newspaper.
Lord and Thomas began in the seventies to interest manufacturers in
national advertising. The importanceof advertising technique was evident not only in the starting of Printers Ink in 1888 but in the appear34 Frank Presbrey, The History and Development of Advertising (Garden City,
1929), 272.
35 See Mark Sullivan, The Education of an American (New York, 1938).

24
Harold A. Innes
ance of numerousbooks on advertising in the nineties. Mail order houses

emerged in the West to take advantage of markets created by railroads
and an improved postal system. Montgomery Ward and Company
started in Chicago in 1872 and Sears Roebuck at a later date; both developed techniques of description, half tone and color in presentation
which had their implicationsin the improvementof newspaperadvertising to serve the needs of metropolitancenters.
The use of electric power in urban transit widened the market and
electric lighting reducedthe fire hazards, facilitating the growth of department stores. It has been said that departmentstores were founded
on "one price, quick sales on low mark-up, multiplicity of offerings
under one roof, bargain counters and lavish advertising."36Newspapers
had served as pioneers in the field of low prices and rapid turnover, and
as they were followed by periodicals, so they were followed by other
types of goods. As a direct contribution M. E. Stone imported large
numbersof pennies in Chicago, where the five cent coin was the prevailing denomination, in order to encourage the sale of his papers, and he
persuadedstores to introduceprices ending in nine cents in order to increase their use. The use of small coins facilitated the sale of low-priced
goods to larger numbers of consumers in the small income class. The
one-price system made possible large scale advertising and standardized
salesmanship.A. T. Stewart and Company in New York, John Wanamaker in Philadelphia,and Field and Leiter in Chicago, built up large
stores; and advertising consultants, such as John E. Powers, contributed to their expansion.
The effects of metropolitan advertising were evident in the growth
of evening papers designed to attract women readers. Department store
advertising becamenews. While morning papers escapedthe dominance
of male readers37characteristicsof papers such as the The Times concerned with political influence, they had not been successful in meeting
the demands of lower income groups. Electric lighting made reading
easier, and evening papers publishednews in which the morning papers
were handicapped,particularlyabout sports. They were sold more largely
by street sales and developeda style with immediate interest and appeal.
36
F. L. Mott, American Jotrnalism (New York, 1941), 596.

"The London Times is emphaticallya paper for men . ... American women read
newspapers as much as their liege lords. The paper must accommodate itself to this
fact; and hence the American sheet involves a variety of topics and diversity of contents." Reymondin The New York Times, Oct. 14, 1852.Breyer, 242.
37

25
The success of the Scripps papers reflected the advantages of evening

papers and the possibilities of their development in Western centers.
Policies were also developedto appeal directly to lower income groups.
Deliberately and aggressively chains of smaller papers were built up
which emphasized complete independence of advertisers or financial
groups in order to appealto labor. The policy was advertised effectively
in the establishmentof the Day Book in Chicago, a paper which carried
no advertising.
Loss of advertising by the morning papers to the evening papers led
the former to build up the Sunday paper with its voracious appetite for
features.38Sunday, morning, and evening papers began to demand
features on a large scale and to become competitors of magazines and
periodicals.The use of wood pulp and the lowering of the cost of newsprint coincidedwith the demand for news and feature material. The use
of the stereotype brought an end to the blanket sheets, and the production of patent insides, for printing and distribution for news, and later
for advertising. Syndicates appearedshortly after the Civil War to provide material for large numbersof small papers. The use of comics and
of color increased from the nineties, and the continued comics became
of first importancein capturingand maintaining circulation. Specialization in syndicated material brought improvements in its general character and increased the demand for features. Rural mail delivery in
1897 brought an end to the weeklies and an increase in the circulationof
small dailies with further demands for boiler plate.
Major technologicalchanges brought revolutions in journalism in the
trend toward inclusiveness. Interstitial media preceding major technological changes were absorbed, and features, news and advertising
brought under the dominationof the newspaper.Numerous departments
were created to cater to the demands of special groups in a specialized
society.39The growth of chains, syndicates,and press associations reflects
the demand for a combination of regional news items with universal
features. Metropolitanpapers have become increasingly concerned with
local news as they have demandedincreasing numbersof features. Even
in New York concentration on local news has increased, even though
national advertising has also increased.' The size of the continent has
necessitatedvariation and uniformity.
38
Will Irwin, Propagandaand the News (New York, 1936).
39 James Weber Linn, James Keeley Newspaperman (Indianapolis, 1937).

40 See W. C. Crum,Advertising Fluctuations Seasonal and Cyclical (Chicago,

1927).
26
Harold A. Innis
Devices designed to increasecirculationin order to captureadvertising

weakened the position of the editorial or changed it into such writing
as that of Arthur Brisbane. Menckenhas describedthe editorial page as
"our grandest and gaudiest failure." After the defeat of Landon, Captain Patterson pronouncedthat "the editorial is dead." A comparison
of newspapersin St. Louis in 1875 and 1925 shows a decline of total
space devoted to news from 55.3%oto 26.7%o(including an increase in
sports from 1.7%oto 25.4%o); of opinion from 9.67%oto 2.2%o;but an
increasefrom 6.3%oto 10.4%oof the spacedevoted to features; and from
28.9%oto 60.5%oof that devoted to advertising.4'Advertising was estimatedto have increased50% from 1899 to 1942.42Editorial influencewas
exercised through the headlines, developednot only to captureattention
but also to save the time of the readerfaced with papersof increasingsize.
Slanting of the headlines and the news opened the door to the press
agent or publicity agent, not inaccuratelydescribedas the praise agent
or the pufflicityagent. The constant reiteration of the supremacyof the
editor was an indication in itself of the supremacyof the business manager and the advertiser.
The eventual adjustment of the newspaperto changes in the demands
of advertising, and to the dominance of advertising, narrows the relations between the newspaperand the commercialworld. Large-scale organizations build up goodwill through newspaper advertising, and the
oligopolistic position of the newspaperbecomes a part of business firms'
monopolistic or oligopolistic position. Large users of advertising have
concentratedon techniqueand its effectiveness,and advertisingagents and
newspapershave beencompelledto developresearchorganizations.Newspapers at a late date created an Audit Bureau of Circulation and have
sponsored pure food laws and "truth" in advertising. Poisoning of the
news had led to demandsfrom advertisers for accuracyand truth. Sensationalism without the newspapercannot be comparedto sensationalism
with it, and the newspaperhas gradually damped down beliefs in witchcraft, astrology, and rumors. But the advertiser demands further improvementsand eliminationof spuriousness.
The significanceof advertising in the American press had its effects
on the English press. In spite of competitionof the new journalism, The
Times, with the support of heroic efforts, continued. The effective or41 Susan M. Kingsbury, Hornell Hart and associates, Newspapers and the News
(New York, 1937), 195.
42
Ibid.,199.

27
ganization of the sales of books and periodicalsin the United States became the example by which new sources of revenue were developed.
Horace Hooper and W. M. Jackson, American book agents, were enlisted by Moberly Bell to sell the Encyclopedia Britannica through The
Times.43Other devices included The Times Book Club, which brought
determined opposition from the book trade. But the influence of the
printer continued in the Walter family to prevent the necessary adjustments to the new journalism and in 1908 The Times was acquired by
Northcliffe. A drastic reorganization followed, and, with the lowering
of price, The Times was brought into line with modernjournalism.After
Northcliffe's death, control was returnedto the Walter and Astor families but modernization continued. The conservatism of the press was
evident in the dominationof the book tradition and the printer.Whereas
in England and Europe the newspapergrew from the book trade, in the
United States the book trade followed the newspaper.American journalists have played an important role in the developmentof American literatureand their output of books is without end. In England, the front
page is still predominantlyadvertisement; in the United States, news.
The impact of American advertising became more direct after the last
war. Blumenfeld and Lord Beaverbrookin the Daily Express, and Selfridge in the departmentstore, continued to introduce American techniques in journalism and advertising. After the last war the drapersbecame the largest customers for advertising and in 1924 contracts were
given to the Daily Express for full pages." The race for circulation between the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, and the Daily Herald reflected
the full impact directly and indirectlyof advertising in the twenties and
early thirties.
VI
The last war hastened the trend of development in news, features,
and editorials which have become conspicuous since the turn of the
century. The high price of newsprint and increasing costs of production
brought numerous consolidations and the growth of chains. Advertisers
encouragedamalgamationsas a means of avoiding duplication.Editorial
policy was tempered by the amalgamation of papers and the necessity
of maintaining circulationamong groups with divergent points of view.
"See F. Harcourt Kitchen, Moberly Bell and his Times an Unofficial Narrative
(London, 1925).
44 Lord Beaverbrook,Politicians and the Press (London, n. d.).

28
Harold A. Innis
The columnist was encouraged as a means of presenting interpretation

to different groups. The attempt to attract women readers increased.
Because of the dominanceof male readers in the English press, Northcliffe started the Daily Mirror as a woman's paper,but he quicklylearned
that the newspaper wants of women differed little from those, of men.
The tabloid was converted into a pictorial paper, gained wide circulation, and led to the establishmentof rivals. The rapid increase in the importanceof the cinema and the developmentof photographybrought an
appreciationof pictures which was reflected in the newspaper,and particularly in the tabloid. Chicago Tribune interests started the New York
Daily News in 1919, with the support of funds rescued from the war
profits tax. Fears of encroachmenton readers of his paper led Hearst
to start the Daily Mirror in 1924. In the same year Bernard Macfadden,
after phenomenalsuccess with physicalculturemagazinesand confession
stories, started the Daily Graphic.In the circulationwar of the tabloids,
the Daily News was crowded into respectabilityand increasing attractiveness to advertisers. The Graphicwas compelledto rely on sensationalism, personal journalism centering about sex, new devices such as
cosmography,and upon dubious advertising. Circulationbased on these
features was unstable and unattractive to higher class advertising. The
impactof the tabloid war was evident in the rapidincrease in the amount
of space in newspapersdevoted to pictures and in the tendencyto play up
single large news stories. The invention of the teletypwriteror automatic
printer,the teletypsetter,telephotographyor wirephoto, the electric flash
lamp, and increasedspeed and the use of numerous colors on the presses
supportedthe change. The characterof news since the last war is a reflection of the change in the newspaper. The national field was profoundly influencedby technological changes. Limitations of the newspaper in providing backgroundand interpretationof the news and the
importance of photography contributed to the phenomenal success of
Life and its imitators; to Time, Fortune, and the news weeklies. Technological change also contributedto the developmentof the radio with
its serious effects on the reporting of spot news and advertising. The
radio capitalizedthe developmentof the headline,reducedthe importance
of the extra edition, and provided interpretation and background. It
could reach lower levels of intelligence and literacy and could capitalize
on the advances made by advertising in other media.
The implicationsof the revolution in journalism have been evident in
political activity. The franchise has been widened and woman suffrage

29
has accompaniedthe increasedinterest of newspapersin women's interests. On the other hand the dominance of advertising and the conservatism of journalism leave little hope of immediate active concern
with political considerations.The dominance of political interest which
persisted in spite of the growth of advertising becomes extremely difficult to reinstate with the dominance of advertising. Even in the early
eighteenth century Lockhart wrote that "no journalist. . . . has the undisturbed leisure which literature demands;..45 "Nothing is less per-
manentthan journalism." Scott wrote, "if you are interruptedeternally

with these petty avocations, the current of the mind is compelledto flow
in shallows, and you lose the deep intensity of thought, which alone can
float plans of depth and magnitude."46Graham Wallas pointed to the
decline of discussion with the spread of machine industry and to the
emphasis on information and facts as destructive of the environment
for thought.47Shaw has referred to the incurable habit of journalists
"of stating publicproblemswithout ever having the time to solve them."
Kennedy Jones stated to Morley, "you left journalism a profession, we
have made it into a branchof commerce."The decline in importanceof
politics has enormously strengthenedthe position of autocratic types of
government. Radio has become a powerful political instrument and a
reflectionof the deteriorationof the newspaperas a political factor. The
rise of dictators, increased length of life of administrations in democratic countries, and the tendency of elections to turn on overwhelming
majorities, have been suggested as results of the radio. Slanting of the
news which has followed the growth of advertising and the use of press
agents and publicity men has enabledgovernment departmentsto maintain representativesto inform the press. The complexity of legislation
and administrativebodies has favored the use of press agents to interpret and to guaranteethe right interpretationto newspapersin search of
news. Nationalism has becomemore intense and the position of language
groups within nations has been strengthened.It is perhapsnot too much
to say that the fourth estate has disappeared.The social scientist48has
45Andrew Lang, The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart (London, 1897).
46 Scott's Journal, II, 134.
47 See Pierce Butler, The Origin of Printing in Europe (Chicago, 1940), Ch. I.
48 The significanceof the
newspaperto the social sciences has been evident in the deterioration,since Adam Smith, shown in the increasing obsession with facts and figures
in relation to the short run immediateproblemsof bureaucracies,in the increasing specialization and departmentalizationof the social sciences, and in their consequent divisiveness and sterility. Economic history has suffered either as a handmaiden of
bureaucracy or a sink of antiquarianism.See B. S. Kierstead, Essentials of Price
Theory (Toronto, 1942), v-viii.

30
Harold A. Innis
attemptedto assume the mantle, but in the main he has become a part of
government bureaucracies.He has been quick to work in collusion with
them, to pretendan omniscienceequal to all occasions, and to becomethe
kept class of autocracies. Universities have appointed press agents to
persuadethe public of their contributions; their curriculahave been adjusted; and a rash of departmentsof university extension has broken
out.
VII
In attemptingto appraisethe economic role of the newspaper,a study
of the press in Great Britain has been used as a control device for a study
of the press in the United States. The class structure in England and
the imposition of taxes on newspapers throughout the first half of the
nineteenthcentury left its impresson every aspect of the press. The concern of the press with political activity was a conspicuousfeature and its
persistencereflectsthe inherentconservatismof the industry.Fluctuations
in the obsession with political activity have become less pronounced as
the power of the press has declined. As political influence became more
important, advertising suffered and the full implications of major
technological changes were not realized in the effects of advertising on
the expansion of trade. Abolition of taxes on knowledge and the effects
of advertising in the American press on the British press have gradually
worn down the importance of political influence and made advertising
more effective. In the United States political influence long retained its
importance;but it becamea vested interest, not in a tax structure but in
freedom of the press.
The long term trends in the economic role of the newspaperare more
conspicuousin the United States where there has been greater flexibility,
a more protectedposition in libel laws which favor the defendant rather
than the plaintiff, freedom from taxation, and technological traditions
free from the rigidities of the book trade. Technological advance gave
the press enormous digestive capacity. Its lumpy type of development,
its construction, and the vast area of the United States fostered the
growth of national media for advertising and features. Succeeding major advances promoted their absorption in the newspaper. Major technological changeswere supportedby bombardmentsfrom minor developments. Magazines becamesuccessful with features, but these were taken
over by newspapersand the general illustrated monthly suffered disastrously after the last war.

31
The newspaperhas been a pioneerin the developmentof speed in communication and transportation.Extension of railroads and telegraphs
brought more rapid transmission of news and wider and faster circulation of newspapers;and newspapers, in turn, demanded further extension of railroadsand telegraphlines. Cables,postal systems, express systems, aviation lines and radio have been fostered and utilized by newspapers. The concentration of the natural sciences on the problems of
physics and chemistry concernedwith speed reflects the influenceof the
newspapers.Educational systems and literacy have been subject to their
influencedirectly and indirectly. Speed in the collection, productionand
dissemination of information has been the essence of newspaper development.Widening of markets,the effectivenessof competition,lowering
of costs of production,the spread of the price system, the evolution of
a sensitive monetary structureand the developmentof equilibriumeconomics.have followed the development of the newspaper. By its drive
for the use of small coins it has acted as a spearheadin penetrating to
lower incomes. In its effective use of advertising in the selection and exploitation of news, it developeda medium for the advertising of goods.
The lifting power of advertising increased from patent medicines to
automobiles.The influenceof newspaperson communicationand transportation has varied with waves of technological advance. Increase in
sensitivity in the price system has varied with the efficiency of adaptation of technologicalimprovements.Economic analysis has becomemore
complex and confused. The conservatismof knowledge which resists the
impact of improvementsin communicationbreaks down in a conservatism of confusion.
As a pioneer in advertising the newspaperhas not been as effective in
the advertisingof goods as in the advertising of newspapers.Advertising
and goodwill have promptedthe growth of oligopolies. The advertising
of goods developed more slowly in Great Britain than in the United
States. The rapid growth of metropolitan areas supported by newspapers provided room for the establishmentof new papers on the basis
of technologicaladvance. Established papers were able to resist the full
immediate impact of technology. The class structure favored the conservatism and entrenchment of newspapers in oligopolistic positions
among readers of the more literate classes. The New York Times and
the Evening Post of an earlier period with smaller circulationsattracted
advertisingappealingto upperincomegroups. Advertising rates respond
to the principleof charging what the trafficwill bear. Technological ad-

32
Harold A. Innis
vance tends to be turned to marginal literate groups in lower income

brackets. Members of these groups move up to higher class newspapers
or the newspaper,by becoming respectable,retains its control. A marginal group unattractiveto advertisers or too attractive to advertising
of a dubioussort apparentlycannot be reachedby a successful newspaper
if one may judge from the failure of the Graphic.The literate fringe and
the low income bracketswiden and contractwith the business cycle, with
the effectiveness of newspaperpenetration,and with the lumpy character of modern large-scale newspaper undertakings. Penetration to the
larger low income groups becomes almost impossibleunless precededby
minor developments such as ballad literature in England and the dime
novel and the confession magazines in the United States, the command
of enormouscapitalresourcesto supplythe essential equipmentfor large
scale circulation,or extensive newspaperexperience.The large marginal
areas of literacyoccupiedwith rapidityand success by the World and the
Journal in the nineties no longer exist.
Under the existing conditions of oligopoly the contributions of the
newspaperto the flexibility of the economic structureare restricted. Decline of advertising and of newspaper size and circulation reduces sensitivity of the price system and accentuates inflexibility and rigidity in
depression; increase in advertising, size and circulationaccentuatesflexibility and elasticity. It may be suggested that studies of secular trends
and the business cycle would gain from a more adequateappreciationof
such technologicalchanges as the manufactureof paper from wood and
the use of the linotype,that the long period of prosperityfrom the 1890's
to 1929 was not unrelated to them and that the depression may be in
part the result of changes introduced by the radio. It is possible that
Professor Schumpeter'sinterpretationmight be modified. The contributions of Professor Gras to studies of the metropolitanarea might also
gain from an appreciationof the role of the press. Monetary theorists
might learn much by extending their attention from the velocity of circulation of money to the velocity of circulationof newspapers.We need
to know more about the preference for various commodities before we
can discuss effectively the liquidity preference of money. Commodities
have a changing significance to the economic structure, to each other,
and to the regions in which they are producedand consumed. Equilibria
tend to developin separatemetropolitanregions. It may be that Veblen's
classificationbetweenthe pecuniaryand the industrialbecomesless sharp
with an appreciationof the economic role of the newspaper.

33
Finally this paper is designed to emphasize the importance of a

change in the concept of the dimension of time, and to argue that it
cannot be regardedas a straight line but as a series of curves depending
in part on technologicaladvances. Interest theory would gain by an emphasis on the importance of elasticity in the concept of time. With
technologicaladvances in communicationthe field for long term securities tends to be narrowed in relation to the demand for short term securities.The conceptsof time and space must be made relative and elastic
and the attention given by the social scientists to problems of space
should be paralleledby attention to problems of time.
The University of Toronto
HAROLDA. INNIS


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Economic History Association

The Newspaper in Economic Development

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bibliographyof this subject is the subject,and the enormousfiles

of newspapers turned out in the course of over three centuries are

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press, in showing what a powerful influence such a paper or such an

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The Newspaperin EconomicDevelopment

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normal constituent of a morning paper." By 1740 all morning papers

. Advertisements act and

react. They attract readers, promote circulation and circulation attracts

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The Newspaperin EconomicDevelopment

advertisements."'The booksellersstartedthe British Press and the Globe

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The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart (London, 1897), I,

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The Newspaper in Economic Development

of Reform was carried on vigorously by William Cobbett and others,

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QuarterlyReview in 1809 and the sponsorshipof Lord Byron's poetry.

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The Newspaper in Economic Development

lapse of the licensing act in 1695. William Cobbett was a journalist in

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on sales to secure volume and receipts, and the increase in circulation

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The Newspaperin EconomicDevelopment

increase in the supply of news. The Associated Press was formed to

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Daily News and the Louisville Courier-Journalby 1890. Typewriters

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The Newspaper in Economic Development

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Mechanicaladvances in the United States were borrowed by Europe.

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The Newspaperin EconomicDevelopment

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.116 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 14:05:16 PM

in 1909, in the reciprocity treaty24with Canada in 1911, in putting

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The Newspaperin EconomicDevelopment

Newspapers were concernednot only with the freedom of the press

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This content downloaded from 91.220.202.116 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 14:05:16 PM

The Newspaper in Economic Development

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.116 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 14:05:16 PM

This content downloaded from 91.220.202.116 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 14:05:16 PM

The Newspaper in Economic Development

James Milne, The Memoirs of a Bookman (London, 1934), 230.

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The organization of news services has contributedenormously to the

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The Newspaper in Economic Development

by L. F. Schattuckin floating the bond issues of the Civil War hastened

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ance of numerousbooks on advertising in the nineties. Mail order houses

F. L. Mott, American Jotrnalism (New York, 1941), 596.

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The Newspaper in Economic Development

The success of the Scripps papers reflected the advantages of evening

Will Irwin, Propagandaand the News (New York, 1936).